Ronald L Simmons was born December 17, 1930 in Kansas City, Kansas. He was the son of Howard H. and Anna Miller Simmons. He died August 12, 2002 in La Plata, Maryland.
Mr. Simmons was an internationally recognized authority on solid propellants with over 49 yeais of experience in solid propellants and explosives. His work covered a wide spectrum of research, design, development, manufacture, and testing of solid propellants for rockets, guns, gas generators, automotive air bag inflators, and propellant-actuated devices; commercial explosives, nitroglycerin-based dynamites, underground and strip mining explosives, and ammonium nitrate blasting agents; the use of surplus and obsolete solid propellants as mining explosives; and the synthesis plus characterization of new energetic ingredients for explosives and propellants.
He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry. He then attended Graduate School at the University of Kansas where he studied Physical Chemistry. He began his career with Hercules Powder Company (later known as Hercules Aerospace) in 1953 and worked for Hercules until 1973. During this period he worked at the Hercules plants at De Soto, KS; Kenvil, NJ; Cumberland, MD; Salt Lake City, UT; and Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, FL. From May 1973 to June 1974, he worked for Rocketdyne at Canoga Park, CA. In 1974, he re-joined Hercules, and worked at several different locations until retiring in July 1987. From 1987 until 1989, he consulted in the United States, Germany, and Taiwan on various aerospace propulsion topics. Mr. Simmons was employed from October 1989 until his death with the United States Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head, MD as a Senior Propulsion Technologist/Specialist.
Mr. Simmons was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics
(AIM) and was a member of the following organizations and committees: AIAA Solid Rocket Technical
Committee 1984-1987; AIAA Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee 1980-1983; National
Defense Industrial Association (NDIA); National Academy of Sciences International Affairs Committee
(2001), National Research Council/National Academy of Science Committee (1998), and Alpha Chi Sigma
(Chemistry).
He authored over 80 technical publications with Hercules Aerospace, Rocketdyne and the United States Navy. He was developing technical books and a lecture series concerning the history of solid propellanis and the fundamentals of gun propulsion. He held four patents on powders and propellants.
He received the JANNAF Combustion recognition award in November 2000 and the David Packard award for US Marines AAAV 30/40mm program IPT team.
His business required him to travel to numerous countries including Germany, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, and Norway.
Ron's hobbies included flying, hiking, photography, family genealogy, spelunking, chess, and competitive pistol shooting. He was also an avid sports car enthusiast. He was the Chairman of the Kittatinny (NJ) Grotto of the National Speleological Society (NSS) 1960-1964. He participated in numerous state (MD, VA, CA, and UT), regional, and national pistol matches, including final tryouts (only by invitation to the top 50 competitors in the US) for the International Shooting Teams in 1975, 1976 and 1977. Ron was Firearms Instructor for the Allegany County (MD) Sheriffs Department from 1968 to 1973 and held the title of Pistol Champion of Western Maryland from 1968 to 1973. He loved flying and held private single-engine, commercial, and flight instructor licenses; basic, advanced and instrument ground instructor licenses; and instrument and sea plane ratings. He volunteered his time to act as a judge for local elementary and high school science competitions.
In March of 1951 Ron married Jean Smith in Kansas City, Kansas. They had three children, a son William Ronald Simmons and two daughters Ann Lorraine Simmons-Mulock and Sharon Kay Carpenter. In August 1990 he married Carol Krause Simmons in La Plata, Maryland. He had a brother Donald, eleven grandchildren, two stepdaughters, Tracy Jeanne Back and Kern Louise Tibbits Bowman, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and friends and colleagues around the world. A grandson, Nathan Carpenter, and his parents predeceased him.